Fantasy Premier League managers were able to learn a great deal about how they should build their 2018/19 squads from Sunday’s Community Shield final.
While the top-flight champions looked primed and ready for a new campaign it was a less than convincing performance from FA Cup winners Chelsea.
We’ve gone over the match in fine detail to work out what the implications are for Gameweek 1 of FPL.
CHELSEA 0-2 MANCHESTER CITY
- Goals: Sergio Aguero x2 (£11.0m)
- Assists: Phil Foden (£5.0m), Bernardo Silva (£7.5m)
Sergio Aguero (£11.0m) is likely to receive a boost in FPL ownership this week after his brace won the Community Shield for Manchester City. Despite only returning to training last week, the striker looked sharp, fit and ready for a new campaign after only sporadic involvements with Argentina at the World Cup. He began the day in 13 percent of squads but roughly two hours after Sunday’s full-time whistle he had reached 15 percent ownership.
Aguero’s FPL pedigree combined with appealing City fixtures will continue to make him a popular signing between now and the Gameweek 1 deadline. However, there are no complete guarantees yet that he won’t be subjected to the same type of rotation Pep Guardiola operated last season, with Gabriel Jesus (£10.5m) also available now. Aguero could conceivably start against Arsenal in Gameweek 1 and then be benched against Huddersfield in Gameweek 2, so there does remain some selection risk over him. Meanwhile, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.0m) could still offer more starts at the same price-point. Although, there was also encouragement from the fact that Aguero played 80 minutes and was allowed to play roughly a quarter of an hour alongside Jesus, who came on for Riyad Mahrez (£9.0m). If Guardiola does opt to use the 3-5-2 formation in the league then Aguero and Jesus could both become viable options once again.
It will be interesting to see if Bernardo Silva (£7.5m) or Phil Foden (£5.0m) can build on their minimal ownership this week (1.4 and 0.1 percent respectively) after both of them impressed against Chelsea. Silva, in particular, was a stand-out performer who provided the assist for Aguero’s second goal. With Raheem Sterling (£11.0m) and De Bruyne still not back in training there are plenty of opportunities up for grabs in central midfield early on and Silva and Foden could provide cut-price routes into City’s attack, with that Gameweek 2 home match against Huddersfield in mind.
“(Phil Foden) ready for the Premier League, we was last season and now he has one more year experience. It’s so good for us. Right now it’s Bernardo and 10 more, but it’s about what you do over the season. In this moment Bernardo is far above the other guys.” – Pep Guardiola
Mahrez had a fairly quiet introduction to life as a Manchester City player but did show some promising signs for the season ahead. He found plenty of space on his right-hand flank, proving a useful outlet for the Citizens’ attacks and was also on set-pieces in the absence of De Bruyne. It will obviously take some time for Mahrez to be completely integrated into Guardiola’s system but given that he appears to already be able to find space to provide goal threat, we can probably expect good things for him in 2018/19. Also of note was the fact that Mahrez switched to the left after Leroy Sané (£9.5m) went off the pitch.
The German attacker may well experience a drop-off in ownership between now and the Gameweek 1 deadline. The midfielder’s absence from Germany’s World Cup squad this summer made him a key target for Fantasy managers and he came into the Community Shield final as the third-most owned player in his classification (19 percent). However, Sané managed just 45 minutes at Wembley before being subbed off with a knock – and he looked fairly sluggish too, his first-touch letting him down on more than one occasion. That performance came after comments made by Guardiola last week that he still has more work to do to be ready for the new season. His start at Wembley was actually his first of pre-season and his half-time withdrawal means that he has only accrued a total of 107 minutes.
Pre-season excitement over Pedro (£6.5m) and Callum Hudson-Odoi (£4.5m) was somewhat quelled by a largely anonymous performance from both players. The latter found some space on the edge of City’s box early on but was limited only to a pair of speculative shots. Both options seemed unwilling to challenge full-backs Benjamin Mendy (£6.0m) and Kyle Walker (£6.5m) for pace and were, therefore, not as effective as they could have been. Furthermore, Willian (£7.5m) made his Chelsea return at Wembley, replacing Hudson-Odoi in the 59th minute while Victor Moses (£6.0m) was once again used as a second-half substitute for Pedro, further complicating the issue of predicting who will start in the front three for Gameweek 1, let alone in the weeks beyond that.
As expected, Chelsea’s new 4-3-3 system seems to have hampered the Fantasy potential of Marcos Alonso (£6.5m) and Cesar Azpilicueta (£6.5m). The two of them were deployed as the full-backs in the four-man defence and were not as forward-thinking as they were last season. Obviously, we must point out that they may see more joy on the attack against lower quality opposition but the pre-season signs about their prospects are still not particularly encouraging. Anyone wanting to invest in the Chelsea defence would do better to save £1.0m by going for David Luiz (£5.5m), whose start at Wembley made him the most-used defender this summer under Sarri (289 minutes).
However, whether it will prove to be a viable strategy to cover the Blues’ back-line remains to be seen. Chelsea did not look at their best at Wembley and such a flat display will have given plenty of confidence to Huddersfield Town that they can cause a Gameweek 1 upset. After that it’s a new-look Arsenal for Chelsea in Gameweek 2, with a fit and firing strike pairing of Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette (£9.5m) both looking good in pre-season so far.
In fact, looking to Chelsea when they are clearly still adapting to Sarri’s style may not be a sensible idea. The former Napoli manager himself admitted there is much work to be done.
“We have the idea to press, but sometimes we don’t press how we should. We have the idea to control the match but today we did not control it. Next week we have a game but I prefer just to train with the players. I arrived here three weeks ago & I’ve not seen at the moment six of the players, so it’s very difficult. It depends on me, it depends on the players, but I don’t know (how long it’ll take).” – Maurizio Sarri
As was the case before the match, there remains plenty of uncertainty over who will start at centre-back for Man City at the Emirates Stadium next weekend. John Stones (£5.5m) and Aymeric Laporte (£5.5m) were the preferred pair for the Community Shield but both Nicolas Otamendi (£6.5m) and Vincent Kompany (£5.5m) staked their claims by appearing as second-half substitutes.
The full-back areas feel more settled for City with Benjamin Mendy (£6.0m) and Kyle Walker (£6.5m) playing on the left and right respectively in this one. With Fabian Delph (£5.5m) and the injured Danilo (£5.5m) the alternatives in these positions, it seems likely that they, alongside goalkeeper Ederson (£5.5m) are the more risk-free investments in the City defence. Mendy, in particular, impressed at Wembley, making some good overlapping runs and backing up our recent claims that he could be a powerful Fantasy asset in 2018/19.
CHELSEA XI (4-3-3): Caballero; Alonso, David Luiz, Rüdiger, Azpilicueta; Barkley, Jorginho, Fabregas (Drinkwater 60’); Pedro (Moses 79’), Morata (Abraham 69’), Hudson-Odoi (Willian 59’).
MANCHESTER CITY XI (4-2-3-1): Bravo; Mendy, Laporte (Otamendi 86’), Stones (Gomes 94’), Walker; Fernandinho, Foden (Diaz 75’); Mahrez (Jesus 66’), Bernardo, Sane (Gundogan 45’); Aguero (Kompany 80’).
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